In flat conductor technologies, the rear side electrode of the semiconductor power chip can be surface-mounted on a flat conductor chip island of a flat conductor leadframe. The top side electrode is electrically connected to an internal flat conductor of the flat conductor leadframe via a connecting line or a connecting element.
A semiconductor power component of this type is known from U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0162330. In the case of the known semiconductor power component having a semiconductor power chip, however, there is no large-area electrode provided on the top side of the semiconductor power chip, rather this large-area electrode is divided into contact strips. The contact strips of the surface electrode are connected via bonding wires to a busbar, which is arranged on an insulated base and merges into an external flat conductor. The large-area rear side electrode is fixed directly on a chip island of a flat conductor leadframe and is electrically connected to a further external flat conductor.
One disadvantage of the semiconductor power component is that the surface electrode is split into narrow strips which, for their part, merge into bonding wires. This has the disadvantage that the permissible current density is limited by the sum of the cross sections of the bonding wires. Consequently, the current has to be limited depending on the diameters of the bonding wires in order to prevent the bonding wires of the semiconductor power component from being fused.
German Patent document number DE 10 2004 006 440.7 discloses a sensor component having a freely accessible sensor region, the sensor region of which is ensured with corresponding contact pads on a substrate via connecting lines, where the connecting lines may be either bonding tapes, bonding wires or flat cables. In order to transfer this solution to a semiconductor power component, the cross sections of the bonding tapes have to be enlarged in such a way that a reliable bonding connection cannot be ensured on account of the thickness of the bonding tapes then required.
If a plurality of bonding wires are used for the semiconductor power component, they limit the maximum possible current or the maximum possible current density through the semiconductor power component, as is already known from U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0162330. Finally, there are also solutions in which flat cables connect the large-area electrode to corresponding wide contact pads of an internal flat conductor. However, with these relatively flat cables, there is also the problem of producing a reliable cohesive connection to the large-area top side electrode of the semiconductor chip.